Posted on 08/06/2008 7:11:12 AM PDT by MeanWestTexan
Washington, DC (PRWEB) August 6, 2008 -- Congressman Eric Cantor (R Va.) is calling on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to develop "a clear mechanism" to assure that recipients of CPB funding meet the statutory requirement for "strict adherence to objectivity and balance in all programs or series of programs of a controversial nature." In an August 4 letter to Chair Chris Boskin and the other CPB board members, Rep. Cantor said "I remain concerned" about a 2005 Inspector General' s report that noted the corporation had not carried out its statutory obligation to, in the congressman's words, "impose firm objectivity and balance standards on public television and radio." CAMERA (the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America) commends Rep. Cantor's call for compliance.
Rep. Cantor wrote Ms. Boskin that he was pleased to learn the CPB launched its current "Project Champion" reform effort in part as a response to the I G's criticism. The 2005 report observed, among other things, that the corporation had failed to conduct regular objectivity and balance reviews of programming by funding recipients such as NPR (National Public Radio) and television's PBS (Public Broadcasting Service).
While Project Champion "is a welcome development, I fear that it could detract from the CPB's legal requirement to directly exercise its 'objectivity and balance' oversight of public broadcasters," Rep. Cantor wrote, stressing the corporation's need for an internal means of overseeing compliance by those receiving congressionally allocated funds.
"CAMERA applauds Rep. Cantor for reminding CPB of something of primary importance to public broadcasting listeners and viewers, not to mention the ultimate stakeholders in this issue, taxpayers," said Eric Rozenman, CAMERA's Senior Research Analyst and Director of the news media monitoring organization's Washington D.C. office. "That is that the laws creating the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and providing for federal funding have long required CPB to exercise direct objectivity and balance oversight on behalf of Congress and the public. It's past time that the corporation began upholding its obligation."
Alex Safian, CAMERA's Associate Director, added that "public broadcasting law prohibits pre broadcast censorship. And it also assumes post broadcast reviews, so that chronic violators -- such as NPR (National Public Radio) with its Middle East coverage routinely biased against Israel -- would be put on notice and, if improvement was not made, future funding requests would be more closely scrutinized. Rep. Cantor's reminder to CPB that it must uphold the objectivity and balance requirement is most timely."
The CPB board is expected to discuss "Project Champion" objectivity and balance developments at its September 23 24 quarterly meeting, to be held in Boston.
Rep. Cantor, whose district includes the Richmond area, is in his fourth term. He is a member of the House Ways and Means Committee and chief deputy Republican whip.
To interview Eric Rozenman on these recent developments, please contact Isabel Smith at 818-762-4473 or Isabel@camera.org. For in-depth analysis of media coverage of the Middle East and the Arab-Israeli conflict, please visit the CAMERA website at www.camera.org.
CAMERA (the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America), a national non-profit media-monitoring organization headquartered in Boston, works to promote accurate, balanced and complete coverage of Israel and the Middle East. A non-partisan 501(c)3 organization, CAMERA takes no position with regard to American or Israeli political issues or with regard to ultimate solutions to the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Now, THAT’s a tall order.
Seriously, I think there should be no PBS and Co. altogether.
Cantor Ping.
I like it, "balls" is what has been lacking in the RNC camp, nice to see a pair now days...
While I agree in principle with you, it makes a great model of what the rest of the broadcasting industry would look like under government control.
Just like San Fransicko is a model of how to treat the homeless and Massachusetts is a model of how to run a government health care system. < / sarcasm >
....the real question is why are tax dollars even being given to PBS?
Not much chance of THAT happening.
How about telling them there’ll be no more funding; it’s time they found their own sponsors - IF they can.
Shot across the bow or more congressional blather?
Its a gift from LBJ that just keeps on giving.
That’s a start Congressman Cantor but I have a chainsaw I would like to loan you to help cut through the dismal swamp of Public Broadcasting...
I have been told this by the greatest conservative of all time, Mitt Romney, who personally came up with this bold and wonderful plan, and I am glad to see fellow conservatives like Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and James Carville concur...
We have a budget deficit and congress is still supporting public braodcasting.
Didn’t old lady Kroc (of McDonalds fame) leeave tem a bunch of money?
Why are we still supporting this?
Given his leadership of the house “revolt” last week, it may be a warning shoot of things to come from this guy...
You eat an elephant one bite at a time.
Hooray Eric Cantor! Benefit of the Doubt BUMP!
I am not going to say that he is perfect or I may end up disappointed, but so far so good. now the question is , where has he been. Oh yeah, all the older and “wiser” rinos over shadowed him with their stupidity. Time for some retirements...
Please sign Congressman Eric Cantor’s petition to demand the Democrats come back to the House
http://www.callbackcongress.com/
Smart aggressive move...if they want to dismantle the fairness doctrine to kill talk radio they’ll get some scrutiny applied to the rest of the broadcast mediums.
Typical Cantor as I know of him.
I prefer the Ron Paul position on PBS: ABOLISH IT! We don’t need a ministry of propaganda, whether it favors the left or even the right.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.